


My Pretty Boy

by Memessavedme



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Angst, Character Death, Death, Established Relationship, Grief/Mourning, Hospitalization, I Made Myself Cry, Injury, M/M, Pain
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-11
Updated: 2020-10-11
Packaged: 2021-03-07 16:08:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,591
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26940391
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Memessavedme/pseuds/Memessavedme
Summary: Billy is in the hospital after Starcourt...
Relationships: Billy Hargrove/Steve Harrington
Comments: 7
Kudos: 57





	My Pretty Boy

Billy was barely conscious most of the time, the pain medication sending him into deep sleep or making him drift in and out. On a good day Steve would visit and sneak him some junk food and they would sit and talk for an hour or so before he had to request morphine to stop the aches and the pain, which was becoming more excruciating. He thought for a while he would get used to it, that it would fade and he would be out of here in no time. Modern medicine and all that but it had been a month and his body wasn't healing. His lungs couldn't breathe on their own, his skin was burned and blistered, his body rejecting the new organs and for 22 hours of the day he wasn't even awake.

Being asleep didn't mean he was resting. No, he was trapped in never ending and inescapable nightmares that seemed to last forever until the drugs wore off and he was pulled back into the land of the living.

On a bad day, Steve would walk into his room and find him asleep. Nothing but the sound of his death rattle breathing and machines filling the air as he shut the door. He would sit there for as long as he could, hold his hand and try to memorise his face. Every little detail he needed to commit to memory incase....

It was September 3rd when Steve pulled up to the hospital to see Neil's truck parked. A vehicle that instantly instilled fear in him from months of slipping out of windows or hiding under Billy's bed. But, the fact he was here now sent something even worse running through him, something that sent him running towards the bushes to empty his guts onto the soil.

Steve had met, well seen Neil Hargrove once in his life. It was on June 15th, he remembered it exactly because it was the day he witnessed what kind of monster this man really was. So, as he walked down the hall to see him speaking to Billy's doctor, Susan standing close by with a tissue and tears in her eyes he didn't ask. Didn't interact, he walked straight past them and into Billy's room. Which was completely and utterly silent...

No machines or horrific sounding breathing, nothing but the sound of distant conversation and discussion could be heard as Steve approached the bed. He was so still, as if he was just asleep and for a second. A far too optimistic second, Steve convinced himself he had made a recovery and was simply sleeping without the assistance of drugs and machines.

But, he knew for sure when he touched his hand and it was cold, not freezing like they say in books or crime shows. Just cold. The tears began before he had let go, before he walked around to sit at his seat and run his hand over his scarred pale cheek. The pain in his chest tightening as he looked at his calm expression. No pain, no fear or exhaustion. It was all gone and left was a sort of bittersweet peace that washed over Steve suddenly.

That was when he heard running coming from the hall, the distinct sound of trainers on lino flooring and then suddenly Max was standing in the door way. Hair pulled into a quick and messy ponytail, her face showing the realisation that all of this was real. Very real.

Except, she didn't fall to her knees or begin to sob uncontrollably like Steve was as she walked towards the bed slowly. No, she took his hand and stood there watching him. Staring at his closed eyes as if he would open them as he did when Steve dragged his body out of the Mall and handed him over to the paramedics who somehow got a pulse and rushed him here to this building.

The building he had slept in for the week following, refusing to leave until he woke up. Every moment until his eyelashes fluttered open felt like the one when Steve saw him hit the ground, cold and struggling to breathe. Except, this wasn't like that. No. Billy wasn't covered in blood and dirt or gasping for breath, he was just still. Cold and still.

Max didn't speak, not even when the nurse who knew exactly who Steve was came in to tell him that he had simply slipped away during the night. That they had tried to resuscitate him but he was already gone. He wasn't on medication or asleep when it happened either, that he was fully himself that day. That is was a good day.

He nodded and stayed, Max did too. They stayed until he had to be moved and even after that Steve couldn't make himself drive out of the parking lot. It just wasn't fair. None of this was fair, the fact Neil found out first, that he wasn't there and that he had him again. Billy was alive and he was safe, he was free of that thing and yet...he was gone.

Steve didn't leave his house until two days later when the service was taking place. He stood far away, under a tree until everyone left and he walked up to see the head stone himself.

_William Hargrove_

That was it.

After that he walked home and sat on the front step until the sky turned dark and the now cooler air sent him inside to the bottom step of the staircase. It wasn't fair, none of this was.

A week later there was a knock at the door and he knew it was Robin. That she was worried and needed him to come back to work. That he needed to come back. She stood there with a hand full of mail which she gave him and told him to call her tonight or she would be back.

He threw the pile of envelopes on the dining table and one fell to the floor, the one that simply read his name is large written letters above the address. The handwriting instantly recognisable. Steve swooped down and gragged it, carefully opened it and pulled out the lined piece of paper.

My Pretty Boy,

Well I never thought I'd be writing you a letter that didn't include a Polaroid of my junk but I don't have a camera and you already have a bunch of those so. But anyway if you're reading this then chances are I'm gone. Which is why I've sent you this.

I know you'll be moping around and feeling sorry for yourself but stop that. I mean it! I'll come back and ruin all your precious vhs tapes if you don't. Me being gone isn't a bad thing Steve. I thought when I looked up at that thing and saw you fighting up on that floor that I would never see you again but then I woke up and you were right there. Then you were always right there.

I got more time to hear that dumb laugh of yours and that is all I needed to get through the pain and the surgeries. But I'm writing this because they didn't work and that's okay. I know it's not long now and so do you really. I see it in your face when you leave or when you read my chart because you're a nosy bastard.

The fact I got to see that face of yours for more than 2 minutes is all I could ever have asked for. And I know I would never say this shit to your face but you saved me Steve and I'm not talking at the Mall. I wouldn't have held on if it wasn't for you and the chance to see you again. Without you that thing would have won and I need you to know that.

But enough of the sappy shit. You better marry some hot chick or bang some good looking guys before you come see me. I'm not having you going all moping widow. I mean give it a month or so for my sake but don't hold onto me like some life line that'll turn up one day and fix everything. It doesn't work like that and I won't have it. None of them will ever be as good as me anyway so you may as well get some while I wait for you wherever I end up.

This would be longer but you're due any minute now because you can't help but be on time. I might be gone but like I said that's okay Steve.

I love you Steve Harrington and I always will. Now go and live your life because I if you don't I will come and kick your ass or I will when you get here. I'm gonna miss you Bambi but if this universe is even the slightest bit fair I'll see you again but it better not be soon.

Billy xxx

And just for good measure in the bottom right corner were two badly drawn stick men having sex. One with curls and the other with a greatly exaggerated quiff.

Steve cried but he couldn't help smile as he read that idiots letter over and over again until he fell asleep with it pressed to his chest. He couldn't help but slip it in his pocket as he left for work two days later because he couldn't have his vhs tapes getting ruined, his parents would kill him.

**Author's Note:**

> I started this when I woke up and finished it when I went to bed. This broke my heart to write but it had to be finished once it was started so enjoy some pain....


End file.
